More on the Day of the Dead

Anayansi Diaz-Cortes describes Mexico's celebration of the Day of the Dead and does a better job of describing what I was trying to say a couple of days ago:

I talked to my neighbor Zenaida(ph). She's an indigenous Zapotec from Oaxaca, Mexico, and can't imagine life without honoring the dead on this day. Will you help me make an altar for them in the Oaxacan tradition?
ZENAIDA: (Foreign language spoken)
DIAZ-CORTES: When I asked, Zenaida looks at me funny and tells me she can't. And then it hits me. Zenaida can't build my altar for me, just like I can't tell Andrea Espinosa what her altar should look like. I have to build my own altar for my grandmother. I'm starting to understand that this ritual goes beyond tradition. It's about faith, the faith that when we go, those we leave behind will carry us inside of them.

Well said.